Sculpted Curios
Unique, at Mitchell-Innes & Nash's space Uptown, offers delicate, tabletop elegance, while Richards Serra's five suites of steel seem to have sprung from the earth's core into Gagosian's Chelsea gallery. It's fragile versus forged, witty versus weighty-both stimulating and interesting when seen together, despite or because of the culture-clash.
Unique is a boutique-survey of last century's concerns with works ranging from Max Ernst's Les Amoureux (1913) to Jessica Stockholder's untitled piece from 2004. (This century yes, but it's a 20th century response.) The tasting menu of sculptural styles (kinetic sculpture, assemblage, figurative and Pop pieces) feels fresh after the messy smorgasbord served up at the most recent Armory Show. The satiric charm of Tom Sach's "Chanel .357 Magnum" (1997) greets you at the door, and Claes Oldenburg's "Cigarettes with Smoke" (1968) made me pine for a puff as I looked out at Madison Avenue.
Once you've had enough sophistication, visit Chelsea for the brutal truth. Rolled And Forged is stunning-and hits you in the solar plexus the minute you cross the threshold. Is it the pure tonnage that feels spiritual or Gagosian's sublime square footage? I scooted right through "No Relief" (2006), a corridor with a long metal plate on each wall, but could not be coaxed away from "Elevations, Repetitions" (2006), 16 slabs of weatherproof steel arranged in seven or eight parallel rows. Like a child among enormous objects, one feels both puny next to and comforted by the set of six colossal forged steel blocks that are "Equal Weights and Measures" (2006). Space and weight are the twin forces of Rolled And Forged, but surface is also seductive. The play of rust on the blue-gray slabs recalls our industrial past and brings to mind painting, map-making, the constellations, a city on fire at night. Don't forget to stare into the steel and enjoy the rust; powdery bright like a flower stamen against the old-world lapis and cerulean blues.